Judge internment in context of times

Published 7:00 pm, Friday, December 14, 2007

in context of times

Steven Greenhut writes (column, Nov. 24) about the internment of Japanese nationals and Nisei (first American generation) in World War II.

The event is more important to the left than to Japanese-Americans. Greenhut so acknowledges when he writes: "I've talked to camp internees and am astounded by their enduring patriotism and lack of bitterness."

Some say the internment was not necessary. I think that is correct. But we could not know that, and I will not put my country down because of it.

Why did we do it? Not because we are a bad people, but because we were scared. At Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, we lost our fleet, eight battleships sunk, so that there was nothing between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the West Coast.

I, an 11-year-old fervent patriot, believed "Now that we are awake, we will wipe up the floor with them." But in fact, during the next six months things went badly. By then we were awake, losing and very scared.

The column leaves out an appreciation of how cruel people were to one another at that time. When Bataan fell, on Luzon Island in the Philippines, 70,000 sick and starving American and Philippine soldiers were force-marched 60 miles; 16,000 died in the march.

My point is that the internment of the Japanese in America should be judged in context; it is not that it served them right.

The internment was tragic, but not at all as horrid as the Bataan Death March. Still, I do feel bad that, after the war, the Japanese-Americans did not get back their land, homes and businesses.